25th Anniversary Edition—with an Introduction by the Author!The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons.For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate … Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic…
“Splendid…Practical Magic is one of [Hoffman’s] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is.”—Newsweek
“[A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible.”—Cosmopolitan
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love anything written by Alice Hoffman
2 sisters from a witching family finally find love and a renewed relationship with each other.
Loved it
This is not like the movie. This is almost another story.
The book is definitely better than the movie. Good premise and well written
Easy to read and very amusing. You will keep turning the pages,
All the characters were kind of unnecessary assholes till they fell in love. It wasn’t very practical or magic, although it was a very readable story.
(Also, I’d never seen the move before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Watched it as soon as I finished this, and the movie basically took all the fun bits at the very beginning and end.)
I think this book is good but not for me. I grew up watching the movie and just recently learned about the book so I had to read it. Sadly this is one of the few times when the movie was better than the book.
Love her writing style!
I like the bond between the sisters,to me, was the most compelling part of the story. I am a Hoffman lover and while this isn’t my favorite of hers – it’s a good story.
Different from the movie but in a good way. Only took me a couple hours to read but I really loved the family dynamics in this book. Reality meets supernatural and you almost want it to be real!
Best of Alice Hoffman
loved it
So much better than the movie-and I loved the movie
This book by Alice Hoffman is a delight. The Owen Sisters have become some of my favourite characters. How can you find love if you have a little witch craft running through your family? I highly recommend this book for a fabulous read!
Enjoyed the movie, never read the book which gave more insight to the characters
Reviewers were raving about this book, so I picked it up. The story itself was OK, if a little confusing in places. It certainly wasn’t what I expected, but that wasn’t the problem. For me, it was the writing style. It seemed like the book was one long run-on sentence. I read about half of it and barely skimmed the rest. If it hadn’t paid for the book, I probably would have just set it aside.
Very disappointing – too slow, too predictable
I wish I never seen the movie, because the book is so much better. Just love this author, read the prequel to this book.
So different from the movie. Good read